A loan helped .


Makenzie's story

Hi! My name is Makenzie. Originally from Dayton, OH, I'm a small town girl with a big-impact spirit. I attended the University of Arizona to study nutrition, have an extensive background in health and fitness, and am now living in Phoenix AZ pursuing my most recent venture. While I have some quirky things I could share about myself, I think the biggest part of 'me' and my story is my entrepreneurial journey.....

I have been an entrepreneur since I left college in 2010. After studying Holistic Nutrition, I moved to Sydney Australia and for some reason had a spark-- a determination-- to work for myself. I rented an office within a local health food store to start building up my clientele. In this time I learned what it feels like to hear ‘no’.... and how to keep persevering despite the no’s. Slowly but surely I built a full-time practice in one year. I then decided to go bigger….I opened up my first brick and mortar at the age of 22 called Glow Nutrition & Pilates Centre in downtown Sydney. Glow was extremely successful, operating at 46 classes per week, with 4 instructors under me, and a 1.5 year wait list for peak hour classes. When I decided to move back to the USA, a business broker told me I wouldn’t be able to sell it because I didn’t have the traditional three years of financials. Well, contrary to the standard, I actually ended up selling the business in 8 weeks. I moved to Phoenix AZ at the end of 2012 with the intention of opening up a smoothie and juice bar. I recognized the gap in the market, and I developed an intense passion for the ‘green drink’ lifestyle that had transformed my personal health on many levels. My concept Osaka Sun Blendery was born in late 2012 with the full-time commitment of recipe development, market research, involvement in an incubator (SEEDSPOT), raising capital, and searching for real estate. I spent 2.5 years on this project, in which time I lost around 8 lease deals…..to businesses that had more money, more proof of concept, you name it. With each lost deal, my heart was truly broken, and it left me one time after another wondering--if I cared so much about something, and I worked so darn hard for it, why wasn’t my dream becoming a reality?? All emotions aside, these years were a true test of my perseverance, and offered a million and one lessons learned. After losing my most recent opportunity in January of this year, I decided it was time to put a complete end to the venture. As passionate and emotional I was about this particular business, the entrepreneur in me knew that I had missed the mark….The gap in the market was no longer a gap, and in fact Phoenix is now saturated with juice bars in each community. I mourned the loss of Osaka Sun Blendery, while also using the fuel & lessons learned to further myself as an entrepreneur. I was then propelled forward in the most magical of ways to this new phase of my life that I call Delighted By.


Loan details


About Delighted By

Industry: Food
Years in operation: New Business
Website: delightedbyhummus.com

Follow:

Lenders and lending teams




Loan details